Senior Hardware Engineer
We are looking for an experienced Senior Hardware Engineer who can independently own complex electronics product-development projects from architecture and circuit design through PCB development, prototype validation, debugging, and manufacturing handover.
This is not primarily an execution-only PCB layout role.
We are looking for an engineer who can make sound engineering decisions, identify risks before they become prototype failures, review other engineers' work, and take responsibility for the technical quality of the final product.
Key Responsibilities
✅ Understand customer requirements and convert them into clear hardware specifications and system architecture.
✅ Independently develop complete electronic product architectures.
✅ Design analog, digital, mixed-signal, power-management and embedded hardware circuits.
✅ Select suitable MCUs, processors, sensors, communication ICs, power devices and supporting components.
✅ Perform component evaluation considering:
- Electrical performance
- Reliability
- Availability
- Lifecycle
- Cost
- Thermal requirements
- Manufacturing risk
- Alternate sourcing
✅ Develop and review schematics for complex electronics products.
✅ Perform design calculations and validate important circuit parameters before PCB development.
✅ Design and review multilayer PCBs.
✅ Define stack-up, controlled impedance, grounding, power distribution and critical routing requirements.
✅ Handle high-speed interfaces and sensitive mixed-signal layouts.
✅ Review PCB placement and routing from electrical, thermal, EMC and manufacturing perspectives.
✅ Perform schematic and PCB design reviews before manufacturing release.
✅ Identify potential design failures before prototypes are manufactured.
✅ Develop hardware with EMI/EMC compliance considerations from the beginning rather than treating compliance as an afterthought.
✅ Support prototype manufacturing, assembly and bring-up.
✅ Independently debug hardware failures using appropriate laboratory equipment.
✅ Perform root-cause analysis instead of relying on trial-and-error component replacement.
✅ Validate prototypes against defined technical requirements.
✅ Coordinate with firmware engineers during hardware-firmware integration.
✅ Work with mechanical, manufacturing and other engineering teams where required.
✅ Prepare and review BOMs, Gerber files, Pick-and-Place files, assembly drawings and production documentation.
✅ Perform DFM, DFA and DFT reviews.
✅ Support component obsolescence and alternate-component evaluation.
✅ Assist with certification and EMI/EMC debugging activities where required.
✅ Support pilot production and manufacturing ramp-up.
✅ Review work completed by junior hardware engineers and PCB designers.
✅ Mentor junior engineers and help establish strong engineering practices within the organization.
✅ Develop and maintain engineering checklists, design-review procedures and technical documentation.
✅ Participate in technical discussions with international customers and explain engineering decisions clearly.
✅ Provide realistic estimates regarding technical complexity, development effort and project risks.
Technical Skills Required
Strong practical experience in:
✅ Analog circuit design
✅ Digital circuit design
✅ Mixed-signal electronics
✅ Power-supply design
✅ Microcontroller-based hardware
✅ Schematic development
✅ Multilayer PCB design
✅ Component selection
✅ Hardware debugging
✅ Prototype bring-up
✅ Design verification
✅ EMI/EMC-aware hardware development
✅ DFM / DFA / DFT
✅ Manufacturing documentation
PCB Design Experience
Candidates should have practical experience with professional PCB development involving areas such as:
- Multilayer PCB design
- Controlled impedance
- Differential-pair routing
- Length matching
- Grounding strategy
- Power-distribution networks
- High-current routing
- Sensitive analog layouts
- Thermal management
- Isolation and creepage/clearance
- High-density PCB layouts
- Signal integrity considerations
- Power integrity considerations
Strong proficiency in Altium Designer is preferred.
Experience with KiCad, Eagle or other professional EDA platforms may also be considered.
Embedded Hardware Experience
Candidates should be comfortable designing hardware around platforms such as:
- STM32
- ESP32
- NXP
- Texas Instruments
- Microchip
- Nordic Semiconductor
- Similar embedded platforms
Experience with MPU/SoM platforms such as Raspberry Pi Compute Module, NVIDIA Jetson or similar systems will be considered an advantage.
Communication Interfaces
Practical understanding of several of the following is expected:
- UART
- I2C
- SPI
- CAN / CAN-FD
- RS232 / RS485
- USB
- Ethernet
- BLE
- Wi-Fi
- LoRa
- PCIe
- MIPI
- LVDS
- SDIO
Experience with high-speed digital interfaces will be considered a strong advantage.
Laboratory & Debugging Skills
The engineer should be comfortable using equipment such as:
- Digital multimeters
- Oscilloscopes
- Laboratory power supplies
- Electronic loads
- Logic analyzers
- Current probes
- Function generators
- Spectrum analyzers, where applicable
The candidate should be able to develop a structured debugging plan based on measurements rather than assumptions.
EMI/EMC & Reliability
Knowledge or practical experience in any of the following will be highly valued:
- Conducted and radiated emissions
- ESD protection
- EFT/Burst
- Surge protection
- Transient protection
- Grounding and shielding
- Filtering
- Power-input protection
- Pre-compliance testing
- Environmental and reliability considerations
Understanding standards such as CE, CISPR, IEC, UL or related product standards will be an advantage.
Experience Required
Preferred:
✅ 7+ years of practical electronics hardware-development experience.
Candidates with fewer years but exceptional product-development experience may also be considered.
We value the complexity and quality of products you have developed more than the number written beside "years of experience."
Educational Qualification
Preferred qualifications include:
- B.Tech / B.E. in Electronics & Communication Engineering
- Electronics Engineering
- Electrical & Electronics Engineering
- Instrumentation Engineering
- M.Tech in relevant disciplines
Strong practical engineering capability will carry significant weight during evaluation.
What We Are Looking For
We are looking for an engineer who thinks beyond:
“Does the schematic look correct?”
The questions we expect a Senior Hardware Engineer to ask are:
✅ Will this work across component tolerances?
✅ What happens at minimum and maximum input conditions?
✅ What happens during startup, shutdown and brownout?
✅ What is the worst-case thermal condition?
✅ What happens when a cable is incorrectly connected?
✅ What happens during ESD or electrical transients?
✅ Is the selected component realistically available for production?
✅ Can this PCB be manufactured reliably?
✅ Can it pass compliance testing?
✅ How will we test it during production?
✅ What happens after 10,000 or 100,000 operating cycles?
✅ What could cause the first prototype to fail?
We want someone who identifies these questions before the customer or prototype identifies them for us.
Leadership Expectations
As a Senior Hardware Engineer, you will also be expected to:
✅ Review junior engineers' circuit and PCB designs.
✅ Identify mistakes without micromanaging every design decision.
✅ Explain the engineering reason behind design-review comments.
✅ Establish repeatable design-review practices.
✅ Help improve internal engineering checklists.
✅ Guide junior engineers during debugging and prototype validation.
✅ Take technical ownership when a project encounters problems.
Client Interaction
Many of our projects involve international customers.
The Senior Hardware Engineer should therefore be comfortable:
✅ Participating in technical calls.
✅ Understanding incomplete customer requirements.
✅ Asking the right engineering questions.
✅ Explaining technical risks without unnecessary jargon.
✅ Providing clear engineering recommendations.
✅ Documenting decisions and assumptions.
✅ Managing technical expectations professionally.
Excellent spoken English is desirable, but clarity of technical communication is more important than accent.
What You Will Work On
Projects may include:
- IoT products
- Industrial electronics
- Consumer electronics
- Wireless devices
- Battery-operated products
- Sensor electronics
- Medical-related electronics
- Power electronics
- Embedded control systems
- Raspberry Pi / SoM carrier boards
- High-speed multilayer PCBs
- Communication products
- Test and measurement electronics
- Custom electronic products
What Success Looks Like
A successful Senior Hardware Engineer at PCB Must Innovations should eventually be capable of independently owning:
Requirement
↓
Technical Feasibility
↓
System Architecture
↓
Component Selection
↓
Circuit Design
↓
Engineering Calculations
↓
Schematic Review
↓
PCB Design / PCB Review
↓
Prototype Manufacturing
↓
Bring-Up
↓
Debugging
↓
Design Verification
↓
EMI/EMC Preparation
↓
Production Documentation
↓
Manufacturing Handover
The objective is not simply to create PCB files.
The objective is to develop robust, reliable and production-ready electronic products.
Important
We are not looking for an engineer who solves every problem by copying a reference design, changing components until the prototype works, or passing responsibility to another department.
Senior engineers will encounter designs where:
- The datasheet does not provide the complete answer.
- The customer's requirement is incomplete.
- The first assumption is wrong.
- Hardware and firmware engineers disagree on the root cause.
- A prototype works intermittently.
- EMC testing reveals an unexpected problem.
- A component suddenly becomes unavailable.
Your ability to reason through these situations is what will distinguish you in this role.
How to Apply
Please share:
- Your updated resume.
- Your total hardware-development experience.
- Details of 2–3 technically challenging products you have personally developed.
- Your specific contribution to those projects.
- PCB design tools you have used.
- Maximum PCB layer count and complexity you have handled.
- Microcontrollers, processors or SoMs you have designed around.
- High-speed interfaces you have worked with.
- EMI/EMC testing or debugging experience, if applicable.
- One example of a difficult hardware failure you diagnosed and how you identified the root cause.
Pay: From ₹30,000.00 per month
Work Location: In person
